no hands no Mr. Chair
all right I'll go here and there's nobody in the audience here all right good afternoon
everyone my name is Bill Bergman and I will be sharing this hearing of the zoning board
of adjustment with me is our vice chair Tanetta Graham present Mr. Chairman board secretary
cheryl l gaston present mr chairman board member michael johns president mr chairman and board
member ryan mcadams president mr chairman also here is our attorney lynn reuter uber
she's just shaking her hands i gotta get that right uh ian haggardy our director
director and our board advisor um Lakeisha Dandy this hearing is is being recorded and will be
posted on the ZBA website by participating you agree to be recorded this is an in-person meeting
with remote participation whether in person or on Zoom if you are called to speak please state
your name and spell it and then wait to be sworn in once you've been sworn in please um state your
name each time before testifying uh to to um to enter your appearance indicate the property
address on the Zoom webinar, speak with a staff member.
Speak with a staff member, call the ZBA office by the close of business tomorrow at 215-686-2429 and provide them with your name, your email, and the address of the property in question.
remote participation um raise your virtual hand when directed so that we can uh call on you to
speak when you speak please get close to the mic so that all people can hear you including the
court reporter um when you are called please click the join as a panelist button if you are
Or joining by phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
Let's go to our list to see our schedule for this afternoon.
number four mi2025 004 139 3861 north 17th street this case is continuing until 8 19 26 at 3 30
pm and mi 2026 000 294 8419 hermit hermit hegerman hegerman street um we have no exhibits sean
ward is the listed attorney and raymond raymond and eileen long long long streth are the listed
owners it's their first listing mr chair this is ian hegarty we do have a request for continuance
from the appellant's attorney sean ward all right so we will continue that until 8 19 2026
at 3 30 pm let's go to our first case at number one
mi2025-004-126-220 north 50th street
um benito martinez is the uh equitable owner
mr martinez
And as a panelist, Mr. Chair, thank you. I appreciate it.
Hello, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for this stenographer?
my name is benito martinez b-e-n-i-t-o martinez m-a-r-t-i-n-e-z right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do could you please turn your
video on uh i turned it on i don't know why it's not you have it do you have a camera with i mean
you're oh yeah you know what my camera's down that's what it is okay all right okay um our
vice chair has just a few questions for you. Okay. Good evening. Have you submitted your
documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing? Yes, I did. Okay. And so I'm going
to summarize your, the application that you put in, and I'm going to also summarize your refusal
and ask if you would agree. Okay. Yes. Okay. So your application is you want to have two family
household living and then there's a structure yes okay and you were refused because uh two
family living is prohibited in the rsa three uh district and also you needed uh rsa three
requires two uh accessory or two off street parking spaces so those that was your refusal
do you agree with that yes okay all right so thank you you can uh proceed with your case
uh okie doke um yeah i acquired this property it's a pretty large property it has a
um a large backyard it's a um i um point house so it has a breezeway so why don't you do this
why don't you put your start showing your documents okay because then when you start
talking about the house we can see what it looks like okay all right uh let's see um
I have to go back, right?
I have to share the screen.
all right you should open your documents and there should be a green button at the bottom
You should open your documents and there should be a green button at the bottom.
says share screen uh green button where okay all right share full button all righty you're coming
up now sir all right um all right so you're you're gonna have to talk on each individual one when you
All right. Let's see.
You're talking about the large house. Why don't you try to show a picture of the large house?
All right. Go back.
Okay. Take your time.
Okay. This is the front of the house here.
this is the breezeway in between the house even the front has a nice size yard
obviously the house is a total rehab because you can see the windows and stuff are are missing
this next picture is the rear of the house there's a big tree since the first time we
came to zoning we didn't have inside pictures so we weren't able to move forward but and at
that particular time we were in the process of acquiring the property so now we actually own
the property so we've cleaned up a little bit and started cutting the tree and stuff down
um this is uh another shot from the rear of the property that shows the long breezeway in between
the two houses um uh if you look at the um property adjacent you'll see that um you'll see
all the windows that you know just indicative that this house is you know
approximately 50 feet deep or so can you just take that up front because I don't
want to deal with that I'm gonna show some some drawings existing drawings of
the house but where am I okay this these are a plot plan shows that the yard is
about 55 feet deep 19 feet wide the house itself is without the porch is
approximately 54 feet deep and 16 feet wide the porch is an eight-foot porch
and the front of the house including the front yard and the payment totals up to
about 22 feet so this is like an existing plot plan this is this is how
the house is designed now you have the porch you come into a vestibule and once you come into the
house about 20 feet or so there's a set of stairs that turns and you go up to the second floor
there's a rear bedroom the bathroom is uh let's see on the second floor uh the bathroom is in
between the uh rear bedroom and then there's two middle bedrooms in the front bedroom
uh there is a living room dining room kitchen and some kind of shed that's um that's a part
of the house it's not it's not like one of those sheds that are that's an extension it's a part of
like the whole envelope of the house itself so uh we have a drawing here um that's not etched in
stone but it is it is sort of what the what we would propose at the house how
can I move this here all right there you go this is kind of how we propose that
the house would look once renovated if it was a duplex you would enter from the
original door into sort of a great space and then you will go down the hall and
would be two bedrooms and a bathroom in between the two bedrooms. The basement would be a part of
that first floor apartment and they would have access to the yard. The second floor apartment
would have to be cut into the facade of the porch and the stairs would kind of be moved and
you would go up the stairs and they would have sort of like a great space with a kitchen
in the same galleyway hallway and with the bedroom and the bedroom and the bathroom in
between the two bedrooms. So if anybody has any questions, I'll answer whatever questions
that anyone may have. Is that your whole presentation, sir? Your whole presentation? Yeah, I think
so i i can say that uh i did the art you'll give but you went to the rco meeting right
yeah they go to the unanimous support yeah we got unanimous support and i am a builder and i built
yeah we got unanimous support and i am a builder and i built um numerous so here's here's the
first question how many multiple family households in that block um there are about three okay
questions from the board said there are three on the block yeah you know the addresses no i don't
know the exact address oh you don't know the addresses because the vast majority of the block
is for sure single family i know the next block is multi-family but that block is is single family
yes most of the houses are single family right other questions from the board
um yes so the the second uh floor where um would they store their trash
Where would they store their trash?
They would store their trash on the outside of the house.
In between the houses, there's a breezeway.
And that breezeway has a gate so that people can't just
access through the house.
But there's plenty of room right there for trash cans
and storage of trash until trash
that if somebody just wants to come out and come out.
And that's basically what most of the neighbors do.
they store it in that same location other questions and your adjacent your adjacent neighbors
the one on either side do you have letters from them or letters of support um i don't have uh
direct letters of support but we did do the mailing as we were uh were supposed to and um
and they were uh knowledgeable about the meeting and you know came to the meeting and you know had
uh had their say okay so there was support was there any opposition any comments no um most
everybody i'm just surprised i'm just surprised because this is a this is a single this whole
block is single family so i'm surprised there's there was no opposition or was there there any
comments no uh at the rco meetings that there was uh nobody's you know i've done this before and
This is not my first RCO meeting.
So I understand what you say.
You know, people, you know, one set of people will be,
if you say you're going to do section eight,
then they'll be opposed to section eight.
Then another set of people will say if the rents are too high,
then you're pushing people out.
And so, you know, there's a whole, you know, thing to,
you know, but in this particular case,
it was very positive and there was just nobody to say that,
you know, that they didn't want it
or even had really harsh questions, you know, at the RCO meeting.
So my question is, why do you need two units here? What is the hardship? Why is it that you
can't use property as zoned as a single family dwelling? What is the...
the hardship itself um it's just that the the fact that they're uh the size of the house and
it does lend itself uh you know for uh more use and better use
all right thank you any other questions questions from our attorney uh yes uh you said you purchased
the house? When did you purchase it? We went to settlement, I believe, June the 6th.
You mean June the 6th, like a couple of weeks ago? A couple of weeks ago, yes.
Okay. Okay. We might want to hold that until we get the actual deed. We can close the record.
and we can vote you know okay because i couldn't find it on yeah okay yeah i thought that's what
i was thinking when um when you guys requested the um a tax clearance and and i was thinking
that uh it might be a little hard to verify that i was the owner because of the uh short
amount of time and it does take time for a deed to be filed all right so questions or comments
from the virtual audience planning commission nina saw monarch the planning commission the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa3 residential single family attached zoning
at this location there is no unique condition or circumstance of this property that would prevent
it from being used in conformance with the zoning code therefore the city planning commission
recommends that the board deny the proposed variance for two family dwelling and associated
residential parking requirements um we will take this to executive session
We will also obtain the deed or, you know, if you have it, please send it to us as soon as you can.
we will also obtain the deed or you know if you have it please send it to us as soon as you
And we look to vote on this on July 8th at 2 p.m.
Mr. Chair, I'm sorry to interrupt.
This is Ian Hegarty.
I believe we did have one participant in the audience that had their hand raised to speak.
Okay, sure.
Let them come on.
Let them now speak.
I'll go ahead and let them speak now, sir.
Hi, good afternoon.
My name is Laura.
Wesolowski. I'm a resident.
Hold on one minute. Listen,
could you please, when you say your name,
then spell it for the court stenographer?
No problem. I was just going to ask.
My first name is spelled Laura,
L-A-U-R-A. My last
name is Wesolowski, W-E-S-
O-L-O-W-S-K-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Laura, are you a neighbor? Yes, I am.
All right. Please proceed with your testimony.
Good evening. Yes, I was I was on the initial RCO call and and there were questions raised about parking.
The 200 block of North 50th is not a full block. It's a it's full on one side and about half the length on the other side.
It ends at the intersection of Haverford 50th and 49th.
And there is a city-owned green space on the corner opposite of the property in which we're discussing.
My concern has always been about parking.
There's not as many spaces as a full-size city block.
And with every house on this block having anywhere between two and four cars, additional cars, two to four cars,
will make it almost impossible to find a spot directly, you know, on the street in which one
lives. That was my biggest concern and still remains at this time. All right. Thank you very
much for taking the time to calls. We appreciate it. Is there anyone else?
Planning commission? Do you vote? Okay. So we're going to vote on this one July 8th. Okay. Okay.
i just like to comment on the um parking thing because there is a green space there um there
are more parking spaces available on that block than the average city block and i'm there all the
time uh checking on different things and making sure that the property is in in good order even
like the second day i put up the zoning notice even though i put it in a waterproof container
somebody ripped the sign out so i was there the next day in order to be able to place a new sign
And parking has never been an issue. And I mean, I don't even have to park down the street. I'm always able to get a parking spot. The most I have to do is park across the street where the green space is. And so I respect what the neighbor has to say, but I've never experienced parking as being an issue on that particular block.
thank you very much number two okay yeah yeah yeah number two mi 2025
zero zero four one two nine four two eight um
lark lark lark per street lark per street jennifer bazillo is the attorney
where's that street
good evening good evening could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure it is jennifer baziglo b is in boy a is an apple z is in zebra y d is in david
o is in larry o is in oscar um do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client their relationship to this property
yes my client is samat raimov and he is the owner of the property right i see a letter from um